Thoughts on torrent sites

[Tonus]

I grew up at a time when reel to reel tape recorders were commonplace and everyone made recordings of songs that were broadcast on the radio.
Is that "piracy?"

It probably was, according to the music industry when such devices were first introduced. I know that the movie industry screeched wildly about how VHS tapes were going to ruin them by allowing people to pirate movies. And no doubt people did just that, and what happened to the movie industry? It's been making more money almost every year since then.

Piracy is theft in the sense that you're enjoying the use of something you were expected to pay for. Most media industries seem to realize over time that a certain amount of loss is inevitable and that they will continue to make money hand-over-fist and so they stop being so worried about it. The primary benefit of music piracy is considerable, IMO: it completely changed the way music is sold. I simply can't imagine that if the RIAA had stamped out piracy, that I'd be able to buy only the songs I want, without some form of crippling copy-protection, for less than a dollar a song. I'd probably have to buy an "album" for $25 that I could only play on a specific device with all sorts of limitations and restrictions.

On the software front it has probably led to as much bad as good, since that market might not work the same way as the entertainment markets. More and more companies are going to cloud-based or server-side solutions that require an always-on connection in order to play or work. This is less of a problem than it may seem at first blush, but it's nothing like the freedom I enjoy with music nowadays.